Francis Whittington and Easy Target
Eventing at the St. James’s Place Wealth Management Barbury International Horse Trials is synonymous with summer, strawberries and that third ‘s’, sheep (more of that later) and this year’s event looks like being another weekend of glorious competition. Adding to the summer feel, it is also held at the same time at Wimbledon and who can forget Andy Murray’s win there last year which held the crowd captive at Barbury on the big screen?
The winner in the CIC3* for the past two years however has not been a Brit but a Kiwi, albeit a local lad for many years. Andrew Nicholson has lived in this area for many years and has won the main class for the past two years on the aptly named Avebury, one of his WEG nominated horses. The intention is to go for the hat-trick but Andrew not only has Avebury here but also a truck load of younger horses meaning a busy weekend. Andrew and Avebury will be in the dressage arena on Friday afternoon but another Kiwi in the spotlight, Jock Paget was first in the ring on Thursday – not as a competitor but the guinea pig rider – riding his WEG horse Clifton Promise
However it was a British rider, Francis Whittington who held the lead at the end of the first day with a score of 42.6 riding the elegant grey Easy Target; ‘Smokey’, as he is known, is owned by Catherine Witt, a great supporter of the sport who owns many lovely eventing horses. Francis is also currently in equal sixth place on Hasty Imp with the Irish rider Austin O’Connor riding Ringwood Mississippi, both on a score of 48
Dani Evans and Smart Time
Riding for New Zealand but now also locally based at Milton Stud on the Wiltshire/Berkshire border, Lizzie Brown is in second spot riding Playtime NZPH on 43.2. Lizzie thinks a lot of this young chestnut horse that she produced to 1* level then sold to facilitate her move in 2011 to the UK – so much that she managed to get him back in 2012! The young British rider Dani Evans is in third place (43.4) riding Smart Time, the horse she won the CCI2* YR on at Tattersalls last year and in fourth place is the Luhmuhlen winner Tim Price on his back up horse for the WEG, Ringwood Sky Boy (44.4)
NZ coach Erik Duvander has a host of Kiwis at Barbury this weekend including second placed Lizzie Brown
Australian riders Sam Griffiths and Paul Tapner, both recently named as members of the Australian WEG team, are in fifth and seventh place respectively with Sam riding Favorit Z (44.8) and Paul riding Yogi Bear VIII (48.6)
Sam Griffiths and Favorit Z
There are plenty of big names in this class and plenty more to come; Kristina Cook, named on the British WEG team, has opted to bring her WEG mount De Novo News here instead of being part of the British squad for the FEI Nations Cup in Aachen. In her place British selectors have opted to take Harry Meade and Wild Lone to Aachen, an interesting move in view of the withdrawal of Izzy Taylor’s horse Allercombe Ellie from the WEG squad
Another British WEG squad member, William Fox-Pitt is opting to run his stars in the CIC2* with Parklane Hawk, Bay My Hero and Luxury FH, all owned by the aforementioned Catherine Witt. Another young up and coming British rider Holly Woodhead, who had the honour of being the guinea pig rider for the dressage at Badminton this year, leads the CCI2* Section B riding On Stage (38.7), New Zealand’s Jesse Campbell riding Amsterdam II is in second place (41.3) and Kitty King on Ceylor LAN and Caroline Powell riding Stellor Seaurchin are equal third (43).
You can watch Jesse's test in the video below
Sam Griffiths riding Angelo (above) and Kevin McNab with Casperelli (below)
Sam Griffiths riding Angelo V is up there once again in sixth place (44.1) and Kevin McNab is in 13th place on Casperelli and 22nd place on Clifton Pinot. However it appears that another Aussie rider, Murray Lamperd who has just flown in from the UK to be reunited with Under the Clocks, didn’t have a great day at the office with elimination in the dressage.
Hopefully Murray will let us know what happened in an update soon and hopefully they have another event planned. Murray’s brother Warren, who has been UK based for many years is competing here this weekend in the CIC3* on Silvia and CIC2* on CatWalk – this is the first time for many, many years that the two brothers have been at the same event together
Murray looking good at this point ........................
Chris Burton and Wild Duchess lead the CIC2* Section C with a score of 39.5 and Tim Boland, another Aussie spending a while in the UK, is in equal fourth place on Napoleon VIII (49.6). Two others who have hopped over to the UK, Alex Townsend and Hannah Walls are also in this class and currently in equal 28th and equal 25th places riding Mumbo Jumbo and Quebec NZPH
The CIC2* Section D is led by New Zealand’s Jonelle Richards
View our Thursday photo gallery here
